🖥️ Watch the Detection of Microplastics using Thermoanalytical Methods webinar to learn about which analytical approach(es) offer the best results for PFAS in the environment.

The challenges of high-volume water testing during summer

🖥️ Watch the Analysis of PFAS: Strategies to Optimise Performance webinar to learn about which analytical approach(es) offer the best results for PFAS in the environment.

📚 Download the Guide to Targeted Quantification and Screening of PFAS Compounds in Environmental Matrices Primer to explore the basics and the regulatory framework for PFAS analysis.

Agilent water testing solutions: Speed, sensitivity, and scale

Key Agilent Instruments for Water Quality Testing

• Agilent Ultivo LC/MSMS – Ideal for ultra-trace PFAS and persistent organic pollutants in drinking and environmental water. Compact yet powerful, it supports high-throughput labs with limited space.
• Agilent 6475 LC/MSMS – Offers sensitive, reproducible quantification of a wide range of contaminants in complex matrices.
• Agilent 1290 Infinity III LC System – Delivers fast, reliable chromatographic separations critical to high-throughput analysis.
• Agilent 8860 GC and Agilent 5977B GC-MSD – Combines rugged GC performance with high-sensitivity mass detection, ideal for volatile organic compound analysis.
• InfinityLab PFC-Free HPLC Conversion Kit – Helps reduce PFAS background interference for cleaner data and better detection accuracy.

Keeping communities and holidaymakers safe

Ready to modernise your water testing workflows?

✅ TL;DR – Key Takeaways

• South Africa’s festive season significantly increases demand for water testing.
• Water contamination risks rise in both drinking supplies and recreational sources.
• Agilent offers a suite of instruments for rapid, high-sensitivity testing (LC/MS, GC/MS, HPLC).
• Automation-ready workflows improve throughput and reduce manual handling.
• Accurate testing ensures public health, supports tourism, and builds trust in infrastructure.

Microplastics in the environment are becoming a greater concern as scientists begin to understand their penetration into our ecosystems and food chains. Typically, techniques such as vibrational spectroscopy have been used to chemically identify microplastics. However, this approach is often complex and slow.

What you will learn

The Agilent Laser Direct Infrared (LDIR) chemical imaging system introduces an automated approach to imaging and spectral analysis. Its Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) technology—coupled with rapidly scanning optics—provides fast, high-quality images and spectral data. Using the 8700 LDIR, experts and non-experts alike can:

• Analyse samples in minutes, not hours.
• Determine the chemical identity, size, and shape of microplastics in their samples.
• Obtain useful statistical data to advance their microplastics research.
• Take rapid, detailed images of large sample areas with intuitive Agilent Clarity software.

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Plastic is one of the most enduring materials created by humans. Unfortunately, it can take hundreds of years to degrade, and even then, it often becomes microplastics – tiny particles that can be ingested by marine animals. These microplastics enter the food chain, leading to disastrous consequences for our planet and its inhabitants.

Improving plastic waste management globally is critical and individuals and organisations can play a part in reducing plastic pollution and regenerating oceans. Researchers are exploring biodegradable plastics and alternative materials to reduce plastic’s impact and there are many alternative solutions available to reduce single-use plastics.

What labs are doing to reduce plastic pollution

Labs can be influential advocates and encourage industry-wide shifts toward more sustainable practices. Of course, labs are key players in the research of plastic pollution, analyzing to help organisations develop a better understanding of the scope of plastic waste worldwide and use those insights to create innovative solutions, especially for marine environments.

But there’s also no denying that labs consume vast amounts of single-use plastic items, including pipette tips, tubes, gloves, and reagent bottles. These plastics are essential for maintaining sterile conditions and avoiding contamination, but their disposal contributes significantly to plastic waste. Lab instruments are also made up of plastic parts and do most of us know the process for disposing of those instruments at the end of their life?

What’s exciting to see is the scientific community strongly advocating for change and implementing practices that already have a significant impact such as:

• Reviewing the materials used in common consumables and opting for products with minimal plastic content or those made from recyclable materials.
• Incorporating re-using along with recycling and engaging with suppliers to support re-useable product options and recycling programs
• Designing experiments and workflows with circular economy principles in mind.
• Setting targets for reducing plastic waste.

An example of plastic sustainable solutions

With a focus on forming a biotech company to tackle plastic pollution, ULUU was started in 2020 by Dr Julia Reisser and Michael Kingsbury. They are trying to solve the growing issue of plastic pollution by prototyping alternative materials to market.

“Unlike synthetic plastics, our materials are not produced using petrochemicals derived from fossil fuels. Instead, they are made from sustainable feedstocks with much more sustainable production processes. And, in the end, our products are compostable and marine-biodegradable, so they don’t pose a lasting impact on the environment,” described Dr. Luke Richards, lead scientist at ULUU.

The mission at ULUU is to replace plastics with materials that are good for the world. They’re producing a versatile natural polymer called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), using seaweed as a sustainable resource for that process. The result is a material that is biodegradable and won’t accumulate in oceans and landfills or linger as microplastics in biological systems.

Discover the Challenges in Microplastics Analysis in our webinar >

In terms of climate change, using seaweed as a feedstock, ULUU captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converts it into PHA. Their process also doesn’t rely on conventional land-based farming, which can take land away from natural ecosystems. Additionally, farming seaweed has some positive impacts on oceans. Research indicates that seaweed helps clean up environmental pollutants and reverses acidification and eutrophication.

ULUU uses bioreactors ranging from 1 to 50 L to make their products. They also use specialised equipment to investigate injection moulding and turn their PHA product into solid objects for prototyping. The entire production process from seaweed input to the finished PHA powder is monitored by their QC lab, in which most assays use chromatography instruments. These instruments include two Agilent 1260 Infinity II liquid chromatographs (LCs) and one Agilent 8890 gas chromatograph (GC), with detection by an Agilent InfinityLab LC/MSD iQ, an Agilent 1260 Infinity II refractive index detector (RID), and an Agilent 5977B GC/MSD.

Sustainability is the way of the future for all laboratories and investing in the right solutions now can turn the tide for the future. Chemetrix is the partner labs that need to reach its sustainability goals and implement solutions that will reduce its environmental impact and plastic waste now and in years to come.

During this webinar, we will explore the development of these standard methodologies and some of the key challenges faced in their implementation.

What will you learn

• What progress has been made in the development of standardised methodologies for microplastics?
• What are some of the key challenges that remain in implementing these methodologies?
• How might these developments impact other areas and the potential for implementing regulations?

Who should attend this webinar

• Microplastics researchers
• Microplastics analysts from commercial, QA, or research labs who seek to understand how their methods might be compatible with developing standardised methodologies
• Those interested in the contamination of wastewater, seawater, freshwater, air, sediments, and food (such as fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and bottled water)

Speaker

In our Microplastics Symposium, hear from industry experts and peers working within the field of Microplastics.

With a mixture of live talks across various topic areas and product demonstrations, this event is a great opportunity to uncover more about microplastics analysis in the lab. We will also have our experts available to chat live on the day, allowing you to further increase your knowledge and skills on this topical issue.

What topic areas can you expect to see on the day?

• Microplastics Analysis with the 8700 LDIR with a focus on the marine environment;
• Quantification of Microplastics with GC/MSD;
• Current activities in the world of standardization;
• Microplastics Analysis with the GC/Q-TOF;
• And more.

Agenda

Register Here >

Register Here >